One City, Two States, One TV Market
Here's a quirk unique to Kansas among everything covered on this site so far: Kansas City isn't one city that happens to sit near a state line — it's literally two separate cities, Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, divided by the actual Kansas-Missouri border, yet treated as a single 33-county media market spanning both states. At #33 nationally with just over 1 million TV households, it's easily Kansas's most-watched market, even though "half" of it technically isn't in Kansas at all.
| Capital | Topeka |
| Approx. Population | 2.97 million |
| Time Zone | Central |
| Major Cities | Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Topeka |
Chiefs Coverage Just Expanded — Genuinely Recent News
As of this preseason, Kansas City Chiefs games are airing on more stations than before, including KSNW in Wichita and KSNT in Topeka — two Kansas stations newly added to the preseason broadcast footprint alongside markets in Iowa, Nebraska, and the Kentucky-Missouri border region. If you're outside the core Kansas City market but still a Chiefs fan, it's worth checking whether your local NBC affiliate now carries preseason games that it didn't before.
Kansas's Three Markets
| Kansas City (KS-MO) | Rank #33 nationally · ~1.03 million TV households · spans both states |
| Wichita–Hutchinson | Rank ~#65–71 · largest market entirely within Kansas · ~459,000–497,000 TV households |
| Topeka | Rank ~#133–141 · ~176,250 TV households |
Wichita's market is genuinely sprawling too — it picks up adjacent stations from as far as Denver, Colorado and Grand Island, Nebraska in its outer coverage area, alongside Kansas's own KSNW (NBC), KAKE (ABC), KWCH (CBS), and KSAS (FOX).
Chiefs RSN Coverage Beyond Broadcast
FanDuel Sports Network Kansas City handles cable and streaming coverage of Kansas City-area pro sports, maintaining offices right at Kauffman Stadium despite being headquartered across the state line in St. Louis, Missouri. It's available via DirecTV Stream and FuboTV for streaming access. See our RSN blackout guide for how this generally works.
A Kansas Story Everyone Already Knows
No discussion of Kansas and screen culture is complete without "The Wizard of Oz" — while the 1939 classic was actually filmed on MGM soundstages in California rather than on location in Kansas, its story remains one of the most recognizable Kansas connections in American film history, opening and closing on a Kansas farm that's shaped outsiders' image of the state for generations.
Streaming Services in Kansas
YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and Sling TV all serve Kansas's markets normally, delivering local affiliates by registered address along with optional movie add-ons (Max, Starz, Showtime). Given how the Kansas City market straddles two states, confirm which specific local channels a service delivers to your exact ZIP code rather than assuming based on a Missouri-based friend's lineup.
Setting Up Your Device
Device setup works the same everywhere — our device comparison guide breaks down Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Google TV. Budget 15–25 Mbps per stream for HD, 25–50 Mbps for 4K. Kansas's flat terrain makes it a genuinely strong state for antenna reception near its three main markets — see our antenna & OTA guide for the basics.
| Why is Kansas City's market called "KS-MO"? | Because it genuinely spans both states — the market covers counties on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border. |
| Can I watch Chiefs preseason games without cable now? | More stations carry them than before this season — check your local NBC affiliate's current lineup. |
| Was The Wizard of Oz actually filmed in Kansas? | No — it was filmed on MGM soundstages in California, though its story is set on a Kansas farm. |